Will AI make us lazy?

This content was originally featured in the May 17, 2023 newsletter found here: https://www.trustinsights.ai/blog/2023/05/inbox-insights-may-17-2023-will-ai-make-us-lazy/.

Will AI make us lazy?

Here’s the bad news. AI is new tech, but our laziness as humans is old news. We (myself included) are always looking for fast results, shortcuts, and ways to get out of doing things.

That’s not to say we won’t work hard. But, we won’t work hard for things we don’t care about. That’s where AI can step in.

Imagine having more time to think, plan, and strategize. However, you can’t because you’re currently underwater with pulling data, generating reports, and responding to endless emails. As an industry, and as consumers, we need to reframe our thinking about what AI is “doing to us”.

AI is not making us lazy. AI is taking repetitive tasks, admin tasks, and computational tasks. Sure, AI writes, can do deep fakes, and even run your customer service department. Where does that leave you? It should leave you time to create stronger content, tune deeper into your audience, and build stronger relationships because you’re not bogged down by paperwork.

Let me back up a minute and start with the term, “lazy”. Lazy means that you are unwilling to work or use energy to do something. Maybe this describes someone you know. That’s fair. I would venture a guess that it does not apply to most people that you know, though. People want to work, they want to put energy into things. But we want to choose where we’re putting our energy. Many jobs choose for us. That’s why we’re burnt out, disgruntled, quitting.

There is this notion that if you’re not moving and being productive every second of every day, you’re lazy. If you’re not hustling, exhausting yourself, and living every single moment like it’s your last, you’re lazy.

None of this is true. You’re not lazy if you’re not doing those things. You’re human and humans have limits. Those limits look different for each of us. For example, I don’t have the physical and mental stamina to travel all over the country doing speaking engagements every week. Chris does. Does that make me lazy? Not at all. We’re different people with different passions, priorities, and limitations.

Back to AI. Yes, AI will take tasks, take jobs, and make people rethink their processes. That is all true. You, the human, get to make choices about what that means for you.

I asked our Slack Community, Analytics for Marketers, this same question. Here is some of what they had to say:

“Doesn’t the question assume that we are not already lazy? I don’t think that’s a safe assumption. Besides, there were arguments back in the day that literacy would make us lazy. It’s the wrong question.”

“How and why we are using it will be on a spectrum. Some will use it to get out of doing any work. Some will use it to free up time from menial tasks to focus on what is important. The rest will fall in between somewhere.”

“Laziness” is an American problem. The rest of the world just calls it “living”.”

“Depends. I think it has the potential to open up our time and minds for some of the more creative work we push aside because we get bogged down with more mechanical work.”

So, will AI make us lazy? It’s the wrong question to be asking. The right question should be, “How will AI give us time to reprioritize what matters?”